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Bots and Barrals and StoneCrabs Theatre in association with Park Theatre presents the UK Première of
Skin in Flames
Playwright | Guillem Clua
Directors | Sîlvia Ayguadé & Franko Figueiredo
Set and Costume Design | Valerie Kaneko-Lucas
Lighting Design | Derek Carlyle
Sound Design | Dinah Mullen
Production Manager | Ricky MacFadden
Assistant Director | Hattie Coupe
Assistant Producer | Jude Evans
Biographies
Guillem Clua is considered one of the most innovative and versatile theatre voices in Barcelona and member of a new generation of playwrights born in the seventies that are transforming the Catalan scene with their plays. The critics have described his work as multidisciplinary, eclectic, and very concerned in narrative structure and plot. Storytelling is at the heart of his style, using elements from comedy, thriller or melodrama, a vibrating rhythm, and an unabashed influence from other media, like television and cinema. Guillem Clua started his drama education at the London Guildhall University (UK) in 1994, but he didn’t start writing plays until 2001. Until then, he focused exclusively on his job as a journalist. His first full length play, The Invisible (2002), provided him with his first recognition, and triggered his career as a playwright. Other plays by Clua include the internationally acclaimed Skin in Flames (2004), Taste of Ashes (2006), Marburg (2010), Killer (2011), Invasion (2012), and Smiley (2013). Also, Clua has got an extensive and recognised experience as a scriptwriter for TV and films.
Sílvia Ayguadé is the founder and Artistic Director of Bots&Barrals Theatre. She graduated in English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London and trained as a director with Stonecrabs Theatre Company. She also trained at London’s Royal Central School of Speech & Drama and Col·legi de Teatre in Barcelona. Being Catalan herself, she founded Bots&Barrals Theatre Company to export Catalan drama to the UK, where their latest project was A Taste of Catalan Contemporary Theatre at the Arcola Theatre in 2013. Her recent credits as a director include Against Democracy (Arcola, 2013), The Audition (Arcola 2013), PlayThings (The Albany, 2012), Shakespeare’s Medicine Cabinet (various venues, 2012).
Franko Figueiredo is a co-founder of StoneCrabs Theatre Company. He started his career as an actor and writer and worked at Gamboa, Vila Velha, Castro Alves and CDL Theatre in Brazil (Bahia) and Gate and Royal Court in the UK. Directing credits include Mishima’s Hanjo, Sotoba Komachi (Metro and Time Out Critic’s Choice) and The Damask Drum (Time Out Critic’s Choice); Lynn Greenwood’s basic, Nelson Rodrigues’ After Doroteia and Waltz # 6 (Time Out Critic’s Choice), Stringberg’s Miss Julie, Goldoni’s A Servant of Two Masters, Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale, Midsummer Night’s Dream (in Brazil), and several staged readings at Arcola Theatre, SOHO, Oval House, the Brazilian Embassy and Canning House. Franko has directed many theatre pieces for the Young Vic/TPR, regularly directs at Lewisham Youth Theatre/Catford Broadway and runs directing and producing workshops in London, Tokyo, Salvador and Feira de Santana. In 2011 Franko worked with Dean Atta to develop a new play based on the legend of Ashanti Princess Abla Pokou, the show opened at the Albany in July 2011 before a UK-Tour. In 2012 Franko directed The Asphalt Kiss by Nelson Rodrigues at New Diorama Theatre as part of the playwright’s centennial celebrations. Spring 2013 Franko directed The Burial by Laurence Olivier Award Winner Bola Agbaje. Amongst other projects, Franko is currently working on a adaptation of a book (by the Brazilian Literature Nobel Prize nominee Jorge Amado) for the stage. In 2011, he won the Brazilian International Press Award for Theatre.